Army investigating ordnance found in driveway material

Yahoo News ^ | 2/15/2004 | Steve Goldstein

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

WASHINGTON - Prepare to be shell-shocked: Ordnance experts are scrambling to defuse driveways that have the potential to explode.

The U.S. Army is investigating incidents of unexploded World War I-era munitions showing up in clamshells used as paving material for driveways and parking areas in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

The ordnance was dredged up over the past 18 months from the ocean floor during mechanical clam harvesting operations off the New Jersey coast, in the vicinity of Atlantic City, according to Robert Williams of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is conducting the probe.

More than 300 munitions - mostly British and French-made hand grenades but at least one 75 mm projectile containing a chemical agent - have been recovered from 18 driveways and a Delaware clam-processing plant, Williams said.

Some grenades were actually found inside the clams.

Last February, a Bridgeville, Del., resident discovered 32 corroded - but live - hand grenades while spreading crushed clamshells delivered to his property. Subsequent similar discoveries triggered the investigation.

The Army Corps of Engineers is examining at least 100 driveways, Williams said.

No homeowners have been injured, but three servicemen from an explosive ordnance unit at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware were hospitalized last July while detonating the projectile, which contained potentially lethal mustard gas.

Either the Army or the Navy dumped the ordnance at sea, Williams said, but the investigation's chief priority is not how and why the material got there, but where it is located. The harvesting was done about 20 miles offshore.

"It's something that happened 60-70 years ago," said Williams, project director in the Corps' Baltimore district. "Right now our main focus is not who did it but where this stuff came from and where it went.

"We're worried about kids playing kick the ball in the driveway," he said.

The investigation has already cost almost $6 million and could eventually cost more than twice that much, Williams said. A report is due in the next six weeks.

Although Williams said the Army has "accepted responsibility" for the mollusk munitions, the Navy may have transported the ordnance out to sea.

"We don't know," said Navy spokesperson Lt. Erin Bailey. "We have no records and there's no one I can ask. The Navy is prohibited by law from dumping munitions into the ocean."

Ocean dumping of munitions and other materials is illegal without a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites), according to the 1972 Ocean Dumping Act.

"We don't know if such dumping was regulated before 1972," said EPA spokesman David Ryan.

The ordnance recovered thus far consists mainly of French grenades and British Mark II hand grenades that resemble small pineapples.

As to why foreign munitions were dumped by the U.S. military off the New Jersey coast, Williams said: "That's a good question. We were friends with them at the time."

The main clam processing plant in Delaware is run by Sea Watch International Ltd. In October, Sea Watch was fined $9,000 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (news - web sites) for exposing their employees "to explosion, skin contact and inhalation hazards" from the harvested ordnance.

Sea Watch officials declined to comment.

Typically, Williams said, a dredging company would put the haul in a holding container aboard ship and then transfer it to a steel cage, known as a "load," to be placed on the dock. The loads are taken to a processing plant, where pressure is applied to force out the clam meat, juice and shells.

The shells are further crushed and sold to hauling companies for use in driveways and parking lots.

Locating exactly where in the ocean the questionable quahogs were dredged has proven difficult.

"These companies don't like to reveal a good fisheries location," said Williams.

Crushed clamshells are sought by poultry farmers and homeowners for driveways along the Delmarva peninsula because the material is inexpensive.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Be careful when you pull into your driveway.

[Strategerist]

Wow.....this is the second time this has happened.

Bethany Beach DE had a beach replenishment project a few years back; pumped sand from a bit offshore.

Turns out at the end of WWII a ship dumped a bunch of AAA ammo right where they got the sand, thus filling the beach with unexploded AAA shells.

[Doctor Raoul]

Last February, a Bridgeville, Del., resident discovered 32 corroded - but live - hand grenades while spreading crushed clamshells delivered to his property. Subsequent similar discoveries triggered the investigation.

He should have put them up on eBay...

[robertpaulsen]

Honey, I'm ho ...BOOM!

[Fido969]

"Some grenades were actually found inside the clams."

Boy, that would blow your Fryolator to smithereens.

[Doctor Raoul]

I recall reading a magazine on local New Jersey history. I believe it was around Egg Harbor, maybe even further south, there was a large ammunition factory from WWI in NJ. It's all gone now, but at the time it was a BIG complex. The time frame is off but I wonder if there's any connection.

[Rokke]

I live in Egg Harbor Township. A few months ago my neighbor had a load of topsoil delivered to his yard. He was spreading it with a Bobcat and uncovered a morter shell. He didn't know what it was, so he got out of the Bobcat, picked it up and leaned it against a tree. After awhile he decided to call the cops. 30 minutes later the whole neighborhood was shutdown. The punchline of the story is, he bought the topsoil from the neighbor on the other side of his house, who owns a development company. I don't think they've spoken to each other since.

[Goodgirlinred]

Wonder what an oyster would make out of a grenade?

[cyclotic]

One of the plants at teh company I work for was built on the site of a WWI munitions plant. Lots of stories of finding unexploded munitions during recent construction projects. Apparently there was an explosion there many decades ago. Every once in a while a shell turns up in someone's garden.

[thoughtomator]

Wonder what an oyster would make out of a grenade?

A Palestinian, of course!

[null and void]

A really big pearl to give your ex?

[punster]

The paving contractors said, "Business is booming."

[Hand em their arse]

LMAO!

[Kozak]

Turns out at the end of WWII a ship dumped a bunch of AAA ammo right where they got the sand, thus filling the beach with unexploded AAA shells.

Reminds me of a joke from the Falklands War

What's black and white and red and flies once?



Answer: A Penguin after stepping on a landmine...

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

I think this happened in north Louisiana as well near Barksdale Air Force Base a few weeks ago

[spunkets]

"Be careful when you pull into your driveway."

Just leave those wires sticking out of the ashphalt alone.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

This gives a whole new meaning to the term "Driving An Old Bomb"

[Goodgirlinred]

LOL! Good one.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

Why does your driveway brow?

With land-mine fills and mortar shells,

And pretty clams all in a row.

[Goodgirlinred]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!

[freebilly]

Wonder what an oyster would make out of a grenade?

Don't know, but whatever it is will land you at The Pearly Gates....

[Goodgirlinred]

Did you mean "brow" or "blow"? Very cute.

[Goodgirlinred]

LOL! Too true! Pearly Gates, I like that one....

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Yep, Brow => Blow.

Goodgirlinred => Goodspeller.

We need more good girls! And good spellers! :)

[Heatseeker]

ROFL! I spent the first 5 years of my life in Bridgeville DE and have lived on the eastern Shore of MD ever since. Clamshell driveways used to be very common but I don't see them much anymore, probably because of the smell when you put the new shells down.

And considering my youthful proclivities towards anything that burned or blew up, if I'd found out about this back then, I wouldn't be here now. ;)

[Goodgirlinred]

Thank you. :)

[null and void]

Good one!

[null and void]

I'm looking for a bad girl...

[cake_crumb]

WOw, and the Eastern Shore is COVERED in crushed shells. Heck, they put them down on the back roads, too.

[cake_crumb]

Ah, and don't forget the dead stingrays....

[rellimpank]

--ah ha--another thing to add to my lsist of stuff I don't lose much sleep over, such as WMD's, suitcase nukes and asteroids--munitions that have been undersea for 80 years---

[rellimpank]

---arrghh--lsist=list--

[Professional Engineer]

Boom!

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

I'm looking for a bad girl...

OK you can have 'em, I want a Good Girl....GoodGirlInRed, ya wanna call Hillary, Janet Reno, Helen Thomas or MoDo, fix up our recovering-DU FReeper friend here..... then how about you and I slip off to a cozy little grocery deli section where we can talk about Viking Kitties, Moose, Tinfoil and have a nice cup of cheese for our first date? ;^)

[Heatseeker]

Ah, and don't forget the dead stingrays....

...and the live jellyfish.

[tet68]

questionable quahogs
Quite!

[Tijeras_Slim]

Clammunition!

[bikerman]

Oh Sure,I have 3 doz.of cherry stone clams in my fridge better call the bomb squad.

[cake_crumb]

Crushed shell is still common on the Eastern Shore of VA. Though the odds are it probably would be a dud, I'd rather step on a sea nettle than a grenade.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I remember seeing lots of clamshell drives and roads growing up in Easton.

[cake_crumb]

LOL...cherrystones are safe. Nice and tender and too small to swallow a grenade. They're planted bayside anyway.

[null and void]

Smooooooth...

[SAMWolf]

Pre-designated potholes?

[Valin]

GROAN!!

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Smooooooth...

Smoother than "Original Kraft Brand Velveeta" on a Mil-Surplus driveway in August! LOL

Note to Laz: Post #34 is how FReepeRomance is done. At least that's what the Moose told me ...

"Baby, You Can Drive My Car..."

[Goodgirlinred]

Let's fix him up with MoDo. I so want her to have someone to go out with so she can have some fun! I like cheese. My dad was from Wisconsin. :) Aren't you married? I don't go out with married men!

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

I'm single...a FReeper Household of one. Meet me in the deli section by the American cheese! ;)

[Goodgirlinred]

LOL! Ok. I will see you there! I can't wait. :)

[Heatseeker]

Yup - up until a few years ago it was very common here - my grandfather's long lane was mostly clamshells.

In fact in the town I live in (Denton) there was an old plant that manufactured clothing buttons by punching them out of the shells. Its parking lot (it's now an office building) is the only one with clamshells now that I know of.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

When I was a navy squid living in Hampton, VA they were always finding unexploded bombs and grenades at Buckroe Beach. It was usually in the springtime.